Writers couldn't wait to pounce on us:
"Two things became amply clear by the end of the Atlanta Hawks' 112-101 victory over the New York Knicks on Thursday night: The Hawks, short on respect following a 60-win 2014-15, aren't going anywhere, and
Carmelo Anthony's Knicks have a ways to go before they can hang with the
NBA's real contenders.
The Knicks didn't raise any banners prior to tipoff in celebration of their 122-97 shellacking of the Milwaukee Bucks the night before—though they might as well have. The optimism emanating out of New York after that gutsy road win was undeniable.
Not only did the Knicks thoroughly outclass a playoff team on both ends of the floor, but they did so at the expense of Greg Monroe, the free agent who, per the
New York Daily News'
Stefan Bondy, spurned them for the greener pastures that awaited him in Milwaukee.
On Thursday, as they chased a lively Hawks squad around the floor, the Knicks learned, even if they had already assumed, that one game is really just one game, that the preseason is not the perfect precursor to regular-season trials, that the gap between them and what they aspire to be is vast.
The Hawks blitzed the Knicks at every possible turn on the offensive end. They set screen after screen, duping New York's defenders just enough to give Kyle Korver and Lamar Patterson some daylight, and Dennis Schroder (13 points) and Jeff Teague (23 points, eight assists) crystal-clear paths to the basket.
Jesse D. Garrabrant/Getty Images
Schroder and Teague absolutely torched the Knicks.
Korver in particular killed the Knicks defense—the same one that
finished fourth in preseason efficiency and, to this point, has basked in elite paint protection and the ability to suffocate opposing shooters. It wasn't just that Korver shot 3-of-5 from beyond the arc. It was that he was on the floor at all.
Neither Sasha Vujacic nor Derrick Williams nor Lance Thomas had any luck defending him. He forced them away from the ball-handler in transition by dotting the corners. He sent them flying with well-timed pump fakes. He pulled them out of the lane in half-court sets by lurking behind the three-point line, allowing the Hawks to attack the rim at will.
And attack they did.
Almost 40 percent of the Hawks' total shot attempts (32) came inside the restricted area, of which they converted 75 percent (24). And the Knicks didn't do themselves any favors as the game progressed.
Kristaps Porzingis was slow to rotate over at times; Kyle O'Quinn was a half-step slow and kept backing off Atlanta's ball-handlers in the lane; and Jose Calderon was, as Grantland's Jason Concepcion playfully acknowledged, impossibly bad:
netw3rk @netw3rk
*An empty soda can faces up on Jose Calderon, turns the corner on him and scores*
To Calderon's credit, Langston Galloway and Jerian Grant didn't fare much better against Schroder and Teague. They played with more energy and moved more freely, but the Hawks floor generals are a lethal combination of cerebral and quick.
Stashing either Robin Lopez, O'Quinn or Porzingis at the rim in order to deter dribble penetration wasn't an option, either. The Hawks spaced the floor in ways most teams can't, with center
Al Horford hovering beyond the arc and leaving New York's bigs to decide between two equally unsavory options. They could stick to Horford like glue, thereby inviting Teague and Schroder into the paint, or they could slink off him, in which case he could just do this:
Everything simply happened too fast for the Knicks. If it wasn't the Hawks' screens, or their ball movement, or their spacing, it was their ability to leak out on the break every time a missed shot allowed:
This was a statement game for Atlanta. The Knicks aren't being touted as a rival, but after coming out flat against the Detroit Pistons on opening night, the Hawks needed to regain some of the mojo that earned them the Eastern Conference's No. 1 seed last season.
Anyone worried they wouldn't be able to match that offensive dynamism without DeMarre Carroll, now a member of the Toronto Raptors, can now stop. All the usual one-game caveats apply, and it's still incredibly unlikely they win 60 games again, but this was Hawks basketball typified.
Open looks fell more than
46 percent of the time. They shot 41.7 percent from deep. The ball moved. They had 26 assists on 42 made baskets.
Atlanta is, as currently constructed, still a contender in the Eastern Conference.
New York is not.
That's the story of this game. And there's nothing especially wrong with that.
Despite losing by a double-digit margin and trailing by as many as 22 points, the Knicks didn't look hopelessly bad. To the contrary, they kept scrapping and clawing, as CBS Sports' Zach Harper pointed out:
Moral victories don't exist in the NBA, but there was plenty to like about how the Knicks fought. Their bench once again played with energy and totaled 40 points. Grant is a rookie with veteran's court vision (seven assists). O'Quinn is a rebounding machine (10 boards in 22 minutes).
Porzingis did that thing he does at least two or three times per game, where he reminds you why the Knicks drafted him fourth overall:
ven though they shot under 41 percent from the floor, the Knicks still flashed gall on the offensive end. Grant attacked, Lopez put his hook shot to good use and everyone, with the exception of O'Quinn in the first half, did a phenomenal job passing out of traffic.
Those looks they were missing were good ones. Nearly half of the Knicks' shot attempts went uncontested. They just weren't finding the net, and that happens sometimes. They won't shoot 33 percent (15-of-45) when left alone forever.
Besides, they needed this. They needed to understand that not every game will be like their win over Milwaukee, that there is still a long road ahead of them, as both head coach Derek Fisher and Anthony made clear afterward, per the Knicks' Twitter account and the
Wall Street Journal's Chris Herring:
A learning experience. That's exactly what this loss was.
The Knicks learned that they desperately need Arron Afflalo to get healthy so they're no longer subject to Vujacic's porous perimeter defense against wings with any semblance of mobility. They learned, or at least started to learn, that Grant, not Calderon, is the answer at point guard. They learned that they still need Anthony, who is now shooting 32.6 percent from the field this season after his 10-of-27 showing against Atlanta, to make shots.
Most of all, they learned that there are limits to their optimism.
Jesse D. Garrabrant/Getty Images
The future is brighter in New York than it once was. It's just not here.
Maybe they emerge as a playoff contender. Anything's possible in the East—especially if their preseason defense proves to be more than a mirage. But for all the promise this season poses, both expected and unanticipated, the Knicks are still rebuilding.
And with rebuilding comes losses like this—the kind where mistakes are made, silver linings found and lessons learned, but where, in the end, the Knicks fall to an opponent they're not yet good enough to beat.
At u throwing some of the blame at kris
I'm a fan on the sport and I'm sorry to break it to a big Kris fan like yourself, but Kris played like trash on both ends. Not sure why this rook, who is allowed to play and start, is teflon. If I'm a 'Melo fan, who can admit that 'Melo played like trash on both ends, what does that make you, who can't find it in yourself to admit the same about Kris?! 
